February 2018 Spray 19
confidence. We will continue to support well-crafted, sciencebased
legislation and regulation that enhance the industry’s
ability to innovate and further strengthen consumer confidence
in the products they trust and enjoy every day.
North American Regional Issues
The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) offers additional opportunities to align regulatory
approaches between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. PCPC
and its sister associations in Canada and Mexico have been
working together to promote a regulatory agenda for NAFTA
that would achieve a specific Cosmetics Chapter upholding
NAFTA partners’ commitments to a risk-based approach for the
regulation of cosmetics products. This would include open and
transparent regulatory procedures; prohibiting animal testing
where valid alternatives exist; and fully aligning ingredient
labeling requirements around the International Nomenclature of
Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI).
Divergent regulatory approaches between the U.S. and Canada
toward cosmetic-like over-the-counter (OTC)/ non-prescription
drug products pose significant barriers to U.S./Canada trade
regarding cosmetics products. Therefore, we are also supporting
an agreement in NAFTA for further alignment between the U.S.
and Canada on regulations affecting these products. Mexican
regulations do not identify the OTC category. This would include
a U.S./Canada agreement to accept products complying with
each other’s monographs, beginning with drug facts labeling
requirements (subject to national language requirements). It
would also involve eliminating redundant quarantine and reinspection
requirements and accommodating packages that
comply with each other’s standards.
We are aware that the Canadian Government has been
considering changes to its Food & Drugs Act that would
achieve these and even broader regulatory reforms. Our
industry has been very supportive of this initiative, which we
hope will result in Health Canada re-classifying and reforming
the regulations for cosmetics, natural health products and
non-prescription drugs into one category of self-care products,
with one set of risk-based regulatory requirements. The current
system can apply three differing sets of regulations to essentially
the same products and therefore create unnecessary and costly
impediments to trade.
The PCPC and its member companies are proud of our
longstanding commitment to providing consumers with
safe, quality products. Decades of consumer experience
with personal care products demonstrate that they are one
of the safest categories regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration.
Outlook …